I may not have been exactly quiet about my unenjoyable babymoon in Bonaire. Again, I know I am lucky to be able to enjoy such a far flung babymoon; let alone have a babymoon at all. So I was doubly blessed when Paddy to came to me asking if I wanted to do something over the long 4th of July weekend since he had Monday and Tuesday off of work. His only stipulations were it had to be inexpensive and he did not want to fly again.
Lucky for me I have this list of things I want to do over the next year and half, and I knew exactly what would be reasonable.
Traveling out of country would require a plane, and 4 days is not enough time to drive out West but is the perfect amount of time to log some miles on the Appalachian Trail (AT). Hiking can be free and food is generally cheap, as is campground rentals.
Next was where to go on the AT since it runs from Georgia to Maine. Florida is WAY too hot for camping right now and Georgia is too close to Florida to really be any better . Anything North of the Mason-Dixon line would be a rough drive. So that left the North Carolina/Tennessee as our options.
At first, we were super excited to think about the Great Smokey Mountain section, but we didn’t have time to really make that happen, when a coworker of mine mentioned that we could camp on his property on Beech Mountain. Great a free camp site, check one thing off of the list.
The Drive
The drive was a little rough, being nearly 11 hours without factoring in gas stops and potty breaks. We chose to drive through the night after Paddy got off work in hopes of taking advantage of Ella and our dog, Bunhilda (Hildi), sleeping. That didn’t work. Ella’s head would slump when she fell asleep causing her to fuss or scream every couple of hours. I can’t blame her, I know my neck hurts from the strange potions sleeping upright in a car requires. I had brought her neck pillow in hopes of alleviating this issue before it started but she kept taking it off and throwing it at me or the dog.
Eight hours into our drive, almost at the North Carolina boarder exactly, she had had enough and was screaming her little lungs off. Here we admitted defeat and took an hour to cuddle and nap before continuing on.
Babymoon Redo: Day 1
We arrived at Beech Mountain just in time for breakfast a Fred’s Mercantile General Store and Deli, per my coworkers suggestion. The food was good but the views out of the large windows in the dining area made it better. Being morning there was a heavy blanket of mist on the mountain but it just added to the wild morning feel as the shrouded light poured in through the large sky light windows overhead.
Our first day on the mountain was fairly tame. We set up camp and lounged around for bit to stretch out our creaky joints from our car ride up but I am terrible at passive relaxation.
Before long I was turning up the pressure to get hiking, or more accurately I whined “Can we PLEASE DO something already?”
We opted to stay local on the mountain opting to combine the Upper and Lower Pond Trails, choosing to begin our hike at Perry Park.
Ella happily rode along during the hike.
As promised it was an easy one mile hike, following a stream through a wooded neighborhood. It had 15 education signposts about the native flora and fauna found along the trail. The hike took us down 371 ft to the Lake Coffey recreation center. We relaxed by the lake and enjoyed a little snack break. It was at this point that Paddy realized he had not packed our lunch supplies, food included. I grumpily agreed that it would be a bad idea to continue on the second part of our planned hike as it was already past one o’clock and we had eaten breakfast around 8.
If I had known we would only being doing one trail, I would have opted for the more strenuous Lower Pond Trail for a great challenge and better scenery, but the Upper Pond Trail was a pleasurable warm-up to our weekend of planned hiking adventures.
We spent the rest of that day lazing around camp and chasing Ella and Hildi as they explored the areas around camp.
Continue the adventure and check out Day 2 and Day 3 of our Babymoon Redo!
What is your favorite way to celebrate the 4th of July?
